58th Palanca Awards now accepting entries

Aspiring and established authors who wish to share their works toward the development of Philippine literature may now submit their entries for the 2008 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.

Regarded as the country’s most prestigious and longest-running literary contest, the Palanca Awards’ search for promising Filipino writers has generated an impressive roster of literary luminaries.

Established in 1950 in honor of Don Carlos Palanca Sr., the competition aims to help develop Philippine literature by providing incentives for writers to craft their most outstanding literary works.

The literary contest is open to all Filipino (or former Filipino) citizens, except current officers and employees of the Carlos Palanca Foundation, Inc. Aspiring writers may submit works under the following eight (8) categories: short story, short story for children, essay, poetry, one-act play, full-length play, screenplay, and novel. Each author, however, may submit only one entry per category.

The awards have three divisions – English, Filipino and regional languages (Hiligaynon, Iluko and Cebuano). Works may be submitted in either English or Filipino for all categories except screenplay, which is open only in the Filipino division, while the regional languages division is open only in the short story category.

This year’s theme for the Kabataan Essay, Palanca Awards’ special category for young writers below 18 years old, is “A foreign visitor has only one day to spend here in the Philippines . Where should this visitor go that day and why?” for the English division and “May isang dayuhan na isang araw lamang ang ipananatili sa Pilipinas. Saang lugar siya sa araw na iyon dapat pumunta at bakit?” for the Filipino division.

Contest rules and official entry forms are available at the Carlos Palanca Foundation, Inc., 6th Floor, One World Square Bldg., 10 Upper McKinley Road , McKinley Town Center , Fort Bonifacio , Taguig City. Deadline of submission of entries for this year’s awards is midnight of April 30, 2008. Winners will be announced on September 01, 2008.

For more information, you may email [email protected] or call telephone number 856-0808. (Gwyneth Anne N. Palmos)